Body of whale washes ashore on Newport Beach

A whale-sized tragedy has washed up on a SoCal beach.

Beachgoers spotted the body of a gnarly, rotting 10-ton humpback whale lying on Newport Beach Wednesday.

A video taken at the picturesque Orange County beach shows waves slapping the dark-colored 30-foot marine mammal.

The videographer, Tim Burnham, said he heard the whale washed up outside his house and decided to check it out.

“It was super bloated and looked like it hadn’t been deceased for that long,” he told The Post. “I actually brought my drone out to see if there were any sharks circling but it was too far up on the beach.”

The whale’s cause of death is unknown, though a necropsy will be performed on the animal, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Michael Milstein told The OC Register.

Burnham worried that the decomposing whale, which he said did not smell, would attract sharks.

“I’m hoping they get the whale out asap,” he said. “Once the whale oils start leaking from the decomposition, the sharks will be coming in. We swim out there quite frequently.”

He said a professional with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center who was there to take samples said that the whale was around a year old. Humpback whales don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re around five to 10 years old, meaning the whale was considered very young.

The city plans to remove the deceased animal, though conditions on Wednesday were deemed too poor to do so. Officials advise beachgoers to keep their distance from the whale or risk being crushed.

“Just please stay away from it right now until we can get the salvage disposal of the whale underway,” Newport Beach lifeguard chief Brian O’Rourke told The OC Register, “It’s massive; there could be some danger to the public, it’s rolling away from the surfline.

“It could cause damage, even crush them,” he warned. “That’s a possibility in a dangerous situation.”

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